Russian military bloggers say the attack has been unsuccessful, with the key bridge functioning after a brief closure.
Ukraine’s SBU security service has said it has hit the road and rail bridge linking Russia and Ukraine’s annexed Crimean peninsula below the water level with explosives, in its third attack on the key supply line for Russian forces in the war-torn country.
About 1,100kg (2,420 pounds) of explosives were detonated on Tuesday morning to destroy underwater pillars of the bridge over the Kerch Strait in an operation prepared over several months, the SBU statement said.
“Previously, we hit the Crimean Bridge twice, in 2022 and 2023. So today we continued this tradition underwater,” it said. “The bridge is now effectively in an emergency condition.”
The SBU shared video footage that claimed to show an explosion next to one of the many support pillars of the bridge.
Russian military bloggers said the attack had been unsuccessful and speculated that it had been carried out by a Ukrainian sea drone.
The official Russian outlet providing regular status updates on the bridge said its operation had been suspended for about three hours between 4am and 7am local time (01:00 and 04:00 GMT).
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It gave no reason for the temporary closure but said the bridge had been reopened and was functioning as normal.
The 19km (12-mile) Crimea Bridge over the Kerch Strait is the only direct link between the transport network of Russia and the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
The bridge was a flagship project for Russian President Vladimir Putin. It consists of a separate roadway and railway, both supported by concrete stilts, which give way to a wider span held by steel arches at the point where ships pass between the Black Sea and the smaller Azov Sea.
The bridge was used by Russian forces during their invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, when they crossed it to reach Crimea and from there went on to seize parts of Ukraine’s southern Kherson and southeastern Zaporizhia regions.
Russia’s attack in Ukraine
The attack comes as Russian forces targeted the Ukrainian city of Sumy, killing at least three people and leaving many injured, the city council and the Ministry of Health said.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at least one rocket fired from a multiple rocket launcher had failed to detonate and lodged itself in an apartment building.
Commenting on the attack, Zelenskyy said on his Telegram channel: “That’s all one needs to know about the Russian wish to end this war.”
On Monday, Russia told Ukraine at peace talks in Istanbul it would only agree to end the war if Kyiv gives up big new chunks of territory and accepts limits on the size of its army. Ukraine has repeatedly rejected the Russian conditions as tantamount to surrender.
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